Transylvanian Review Vol. XXIII No. 3 Autumn 2014

Abstract – The Testimony of Fragments in Travel Literature:Preliminaries to a Different Reading of the Literature of Ruins – We have tried to understand the ways in which ruins could be used to convey truthful images about the past and help rediscover historical authenticity by means of personal notes. Travel notes capture the nostalgia and indignation of the travelers who witnessed the destruction of representative monuments. Travelers did not hesitate to resort to visual representations in the hope of saving them. We were interested in the manner in which historiography and cultural studies have responded to the travelers’ experiences and testimonials. We also look into the way travel notes have simulated curiosity, led to pedagogical and social investigation, and supported institutional policies of heritage protection. This kind of investigation aims at positioning travel accounts as a category of historiographical analysis in Romanian historiography. As arguments we take the travelers’ behavior, their knowledge about the past, their reasoning and suggestions for saving or preserving the common goods, as well as what they thought appropriate to tell about the ruins of castles, run-down mansions or forgotten manuscripts and books and about the randomness of archeological discoveries.

Abstract – Guillaume Apollinaire and the “Esthetique Flaneuse”The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of “loafing” on the aesthetic discourse of Guillaume – Apollinaire and thus introduce a new concept, the “esthetique flaneuse.” As the author of Alcools did not see himself as a great theorist, we base our analysis upon a vast and rather eclectic corpus that brings together correspondence, reputed theoretical texts and press articles pertaining to art criticism and literary criticism, or simply reports and anecdotes. Given the heteroclite character of Apollinaire’s theoretical texts, we seek to highlight the disperse nature of Apollinaire’s aesthetics and demonstrate that “loafing” is, in the long run, the expression of a mobile and discontinuing thought that refuses a didactic or dogmatic framework.

Ovidiu Moceanu – The Restitutio Criterion in the Editing of Eminescu’s Work • 33

Abstract – The Restitutio Criterion in the Editing of Eminescu’s Work The article discusses the early history of the editing of the works of 19th century Romanian poet – Mihai Eminescu, focusing on the criteria underlying this process, and particularly on the restitution criterion. The latter represented the starting point for the 1890 edition, devised by V. G. Mortun. By contrast, Maiorescu’s edition (1893) applied the aesthetic criterion, as the editor selected the poems he considered to be more valuable. V. G. Mortun selected a series of texts written early in the poet’s career but also after 1883, a text from Eminescu’s journalistic work, as well as some pieces of fiction. The criterion envisaged by the editor proposed a restitution of the texts left aside by Maiorescu’s edition. Progressively, the restitutio criterion was to become a constant area of study for editors, especially after Maiorescu gave to the Romanian Academy (in 1902) the chest containing Eminescu’s manuscripts, the source of a significant amount of previously unknown works. The most competent solution was to be Perpessicius’s edition, a genuine restitutio in integrum of Eminescu’s work.

Abstract – Two Masters of Fantastic Prose: Ion Agarbiceanu and E. T. A. Hoffmann The element that brings together two apparently different writers such as Ion Agarbiceanu (1882–1963) and E. T. A. Hoffmann (1776–1822) is their inclination towards the fantastic, the subtle mix of the real with the imaginary, as well as their belief in the existence of ghosts, of spirits of the underworld, a belief quite widely spread among numerous peoples. Legends about mining have been a generous source of inspiration for the authors of fantastic literature, the readers being fascinated with the miraculous stories linked to the fabulous fortunes hidden in the underground. As the mirage of money is universal, it is not by accident that a celebrated writer such as E. T. A. Hoffmann describes in the “Mines of Falun” a series of happenings that under numerous aspects are extremely similar to the stories told by Ion Agarbiceanu in the novel Arhanghelii (The archangels) or in his stories inspired by the mythology of the Western Carpathians: “Valva-Bailor” (The fairy of the mines), “Valea-Dracului” (Devil’s cove) and “Duhul bailor” (The ghost of the mines).

Abstract – E. A. Poe, I. L. Caragiale, Philosophy, and Wine E. A. Poe and I. L. Caragiale, both writers and journalists, were also editors of important publications. The journals that came under their supervision knew great success, though neither of the two was able to last for very long in an editorial office. Undoubtedly, the American author had an effect on his Romanian counterpart. Caragiale translated much of Poe’s literary work, based on French translations, inaugurated by Charles Baudelaire. They shared a fondness for satire and the grotesque, as well as for exploring the depths of the soul, oftentimes in fantastic outbursts. Wine was also a bonding element for the two writers, as they had a taste for the same wine varieties, both in real life and in their writings.

Abstract – Romanian Characters and Cultural Elements in Spanish Contemporary Literature This paper’s aim is twofold: on the one hand, I will try to tackle the issue of Romanian migration into Spain and the way it is understood and fictionally described/invoked by fifteen Spanish contemporary novelists. On the other hand, by providing a four-type classification of the perceptions they offer to readership, I hope to open further discussions on whether these perceptions may influence the Spanish society’s expectations and perhaps even the Romanian diaspora’s reactions. According to my classification, the perspectives on Romanian society and culture would fall into four categories: (1) the recent history of Romania, the fall of the communist dictatorship and Romanian society; (2) the underworld of prostitution, procurement, begging and crime; (3) the Romanian community in Spain: integration, difficulties, daily coexistence; (4) the eternal seduction of vampires and Bram Stoker’s revival.

Abstract – A Brief History of the Ethnonyms Romanian (Romania) and Wallachian (Wallachia)As the modern Romanian state came into being fairly late and its official name, Romania, was adopted only in the second part of the 19th century, many foreign authors were confused by the dual usage of names such as Wallachia/Romania and Wallachian/Romanian. Since the Middle Ages, the Romanians had two names: one given to them by foreigners (following the contact with the “other,“ the neighbor), a name they never used for themselves and whose very existence they often ignored, and another, chosen and used by the Romanians themselves (an expression of their self-awareness). The first name mentioned here is that of vlah (Wallachian), with its variants (valah, valach, voloh, blac, olah, vlas, ilac, ulah etc.), while the second is that of ruman/roman (Romanian), which in its turn had some variants, but fewer than the former.

Keywords – ethnonyms, Roman origin, Middle Ages, Romanian countries

Rodica Frentiu – Dosoftei, the Lives of the Saints, and the Defense of Ancestral Religious Practices in Transylvania • 88

Abstract – Dosoftei, the Lives of the Saints, and the Defense of Ancestral Religious Practices in Transylvania Starting from the premise that a hermeneutic and cultural-semiotic approach entails a “cultural dialogue”and that it catalyses memory into a “creative and reconstructive process,” this study considers both the religious significance of Metropolitan Dosoftei’s Viata şi petreacerea svintilor (Lives of the saints) (1682–1684), and the functions whereby this particular cultural Romanian text gains individuality. Whether regarded as a church book or a book for reading, the printed text entitled Lives of the Saints acquires the significance of a cultural gesture that evinces not only the effort undertaken towards allowing Romanian spirituality to find its own means of expression, but also the endeavor to turn it into an instrument defending ancestral practices, replenishing and consolidating the ancestral worship. Opening generous and diverse avenues of study, the Lives of the Saints lends itself very well to a theological analysis, and its printed text may become a valuable document for historical research (more specifically, for the history of mentalities) on the issue of Moldavian and Transylvanian denominations during the late seventeenth century.

Abstract – Ion Mureoan – The paper presents the work of poet Ion Mureşan, or indeed the verse books Cartea de iarna (The winter book) (1982), Poemul care nu poate fi inteles (The poem that can not be understood) (1993) and cartea Alcool (The alcohol book) (2010), maximally tense, out of which emerge a tragic vision and a vocation of essentiality, together with an expressionist exaltation of vitality. The author highlights the features of the lyricism that made the poet famous: an oracular vision with a vaguely hieratic symbolism, an allusive language that is nonetheless marred by a fundamental “impurity,” with concepts from the most remote lexical spheres, the projection of the everyday frame of reference into the horizon of metaphysics, etc., outlining an ars poetica based on the direct, placental, unmediated connection between the poet and the elemental nature of the world.

Abstract – Mission and Identity: Foreign Queens, Founding Dynasties and their Subjects in Central and Eastern Europe – The Middle Ages are presented by the contemporary historical writing as a time of cultural and ethnic syntheses and equally as the time when European nations were born. From a regional viewpoint, the successful Christianization of Slavs and Hungarians corresponded to the founding of new kingdoms, led by their own dynasties, who developed specific relations with the local elites. Dynastic marriages were a method of legitimizing their political position in the Christian world, but the presence of foreign queens triggered internal competitions and stimulated xenophobic feelings. The family alliances involving the members of royal and princely families inspired the first forms of institutional integrations in this region, but the oscillation between devotion and distrust on the part of their subjects ultimately illustrates the difficulties of a successful partnership between Central-European nations and the beginnings of ethnic solidarities and conflicts.

Abstract – Renaissance Utopias and “Worldmaking” Procedures – Utopias are fictional worlds which use “worldmaking” procedures such as the selection and extrapolation of the positive (or negative) features of a primary world. Resorting to the modal operators of analytical philosophy (the necessary, the possible and the impossible), we make a distinction between mundus (the real historical world), eutopias (good places, possible and feasible societies described in a realistic reading code) and outopias (no places, impossible social projects, described in a fantastic or supernatural reading code). This essay shows that Renaissance utopias (Morus, Patrizi, Agostini, Zuccolo, Campanella, Stiblin, Antangil, Emeric de La Croix, Bisselius) are largely eutopias, constructed through the extraction of positive characteristics from the image of various European countries of that time.

Andreea Ciceo, Andreea Ionescu – Particularities of the Social Media Commu nication for the Theatres in Transylvania • 133

Abstract – Particularities of the Social Media Communication for the Theatres in Transylvania – The development of Web 2.0, namely the Social Web, and its impact on society and the way people communicate nowadays has challenged cultural organizations from the very beginning. New media technologies allow the convergence of rich content, multi-modal communication delivery systems and the development of new spatial (interactive and immersive cultural experiences) and textual (digital storytelling) experiences. The web is no longer just about searches, but about social context, hence cultural organizations today can no longer afford to ignore Social Media instruments as the most effective and cost-efficient way to get in touch with their younger consumers. The aim of this article is to reveal Transylvanian theatres’ perceptions over Social Media usage in the context of their communication with the audience, as a result of discussions carried out by the authors with the theatres’ representatives, as well as to identify the theatres’ Social Media communication patterns as a follow-up to an in-depth analysis of their actual communication through Social Media instruments on a daily basis for a one-month period.